Railway-switch.



R. S. BEUS 6L P. H. HAMILTON.

RAILWAY SWITCH.

APPLICMION FILED DE01. m4.

Patented J uly 25, 1916.

WIT/VESSES man" sans PATENTOFFICE..

RICHARD s. BET'rs AND' PERRY H'. HAMILTON; 0F MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE.

BA'ILWAY-swrrcler application meeneemt 7, 1914. semi No. amaai.

To all whom it may concer/rt:

Be it known that we, RICHARD and PERRY H. HAMILTON, citizens of the United States, and residents of Memphis, in the county of Shelby and State of Tennessee, have made an Improvement in Railway-Switches, of which the following is a specification.

Uur invention relates to an improvement in so-ealled split switches as distinguished from stub switches, the object being to prevent the flanges `of car or locomotive Wheels from striking andthus wearing and blunting the' switch point. l

The details of construction,.,arrangemelit,

. and operation 'are as hereinafter described,

and illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in Wi1ich-- '.k

Figure l is` aplan vie-w ofr a switch including our improvement. Fig.v 2 is awside view of same. Figs. 3 and 4 are enlarged `verticalleross' sections onthe lines 6 6 and ZL-7, respectively/,vof Fig. l.

InFigs. and 2, numeral 1 indicates the scared, shiftable, switch-rail or switch'- point, and 2 indicates the fixed stock, or running, .frail withl which said .switch-mills adapted' to co-act in the well known manner.

The lateiai guard or protector `8 is pro'- vided with a curved top flange 8" extending above the head of the stock rail 2 and spaced therefrom by a narrow horizontal shelf which is at the same level' with thehead of the rail. T'ne inner side of the guard 8 abuts andthus braces, or affords lateral sup'- port for the head of the rail` and `the screw `bolts 4 pass transversely through both the guards and rail, thus securing them firmly together.

The base of the guard 8 extends funder the baseI ofthe rail 2 andthe guard is recessed "Specification of Letters Patent.` Ia-tented uly 25, 191.6.

onv the inner side to receive the adjacent base flange of the rail, which latter -rest'sdirectly on the horizontal laterally extended' flangev of the guard, as shown in Figs. '3 and`4.

The guard has a br ce 8 on'the outer side through which the lts 4 passi."`

In use of the swth, theiouter sides vof car or locomotive vfheelg abut and runv in contact l with the vertical flange 8h so that the 'flanges of the wheels cannot v'come in dontact wlth v the switch point, this result-bein due'not -merely to the contact of thel whee with the.v

- flange 8", but also to the fact that lthe tread of the wheels is wider' thanthe combined thickness of the rail head 2 and the adjacent shelf ofthe guard 8. lVhat we claim is 1 The combination with a switch point and Y running rail arranged alongside each other, of a guard and ,protector for the switch \poi nt, the same consisting of a block having a top flange which extends alongside of and above the top of the running rail'and thus affords direct lateral supportl for the latter, and bolts passing through said block and the running rail vand securing the't-wo rigidly together, whereby the guard is a'daptedto deflect train wheels laterally in passing the switch land at'the same time serves as a lateral bnace forthe running rail, as described.V

l \RICHARD s. BETTS.

PERRY H. HAMILTON.

vWitnesses.:

J. WV. CAR'rE, J. W. ArroN." 

